Khadija Magardie
An influential United States-based cancer research association has bolstered the already serious charges of scientific misconduct against disgraced oncologist Dr Werner Bezwoda.
According to the American Society for Clinical Oncology (Asco), the former University of the Witwatersrand professor falsified the results of more clinical trials for breast cancer treatment than initially thought.
The detailed audit, released last week, centred on a study done by Bezwoda in 1995, the results of which were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. They advanced the superiority of a highly controversial form of treatment for breast cancer high-dose chemotherapy, followed by bone marrow transplants over conventional forms of chemotherapy.
The audit findings, which described the study as “fake” and “completely inadmissible information” confirm a deception by Bezwoda last year that rocked the international medical community.
Bezwoda resigned last year from his position at Wits, after admitting that he had tampered with the results of a clinical trial. He presented his “results” at an Asco annual congress in the US in 1999 to critical acclaim. It was only when a team of doctors and researchers travelled to South Africa to observe Bezwoda’s methods, that the fraud was uncovered.
The journal has formally retracted the article, which received extensive coverage in both medical circles and in the lay press.
In a letter sent to the head of the Wits medical school last year, Bezwoda said he faked the results of the 1999 trial “in a foolish desire to make the presentation more acceptable”.
The recent Asco audit found alarming inconsistencies in the data. Searching through some 15?000 patient records, logs, and files spanning 15 years, the investigators located the records of 61 of the 90 women reported as being part of the trial. Of these, only 27 records verified the eligibility of the patients. Only 18 of the women met the criteria.
The audit also indicated that 25 of the patients appeared to have received a form of assigned therapy but only three definitely got high-dose chemotherapy.
According to Asco, nine other trials reported by Bezwoda were not reviewed or approved by the university’s Committee for Research on Human Subjects lending a measure of credence to allegations that Bezwoda had not gained proper consent from the women for participation in the trial.
Asco president Lawrence H Einhorn has described the latest revelation as “a stunning betrayal of public trust”, and reiterated the organisation’s position that women with advanced breast cancer should only go for high-dose chemotherapy within the context of a carefully controlled clinical trial.
Bezwoda, who is contesting the University of the Witwatersrand’s findings against him, remains working in his private practice in Rosebank.